The Underlying Factors

One of the points that I thought was most relevant to our class in “Is Prison Necessary” was the overall purpose of the article: prison is not the solution. An idea that had never occured to me was that prison was the solution to other forms of punishment and torture. “The penitentiary movement in both England and the United States in the early 19th century was motivated in part by the demand for more humanitarian punishment. Prison was the reform” (4). I thought it was an interesting concept that people believed by locking people up, sometimes for life, was a better solution than cruel punishment. Taking away someone’s freedom and giving them nothing to do every day they are locked up is a cruel punishment in itself. It is unfair to those that are released from prison to end up back in prison due to the fact that they were not given the proper tools necessary to rehabilitate themselves. If more programs were put in place for rehabilitation, such as BPI, then more people could make something for themselves when they get out of prison. Without rehabilitative services, it is unlikely that a formerly incarcerated person will be able to get far in the real world due to opportunities no longer being available to them just because they were formerly incarcerated. This is the goal of BPI. To give incarcerated people a goal to have while they have nothing else to do. This way they can make something for themselves. It made me happy to see them receive their diplomas and for their families to be so proud of the people they have become from where they started. It is also important to recognize the story of the incarcerated person, meaning how they ended up where they were. Many people think if you go to prison its your own fault, that they did it to themselves. But for some people this is not 100% the case. Yes they may have committed a crime but maybe they didn’t know any better or they were surrounded by people who committed crimes. We as a society should evaluate a person’s life story and realize that the person is not just their crime. This was the point that Bryan Stevenson was making in his TED Talk. People are more than the bad things they do. For every bad action, a good action can counter it. This is something worth recognizing.

A second idea that peaked my interest was how Gilmore decided that she wanted to be an abolitionist. Both her and her father shared traits that made people want to follow them. She got herself involved in campus politics at Swarthmore College. This allowed her to express her opinions and to witness the politics of the time as they played out. Her cousin’s death also helped her to see how politics affected African Americans. I also like how a part of the way she does things, such as preventing new prisons from being built, is by getting involved in that community and informing the people of the negative effects of it. She talks to unions and organizations that are already established and gets them on her side. She is very smart for doing this because then she doesn’t have to create her own organization to stop the prison from being built. She can act quicker with current organizations and unions that are already well established.

Lastly, an idea that is relevant to our class theme is the idea of carceral geography that Gilmore came up with. I think it is very relevant to our class which discusses the school to prison pipeline. This also correlates with my structural analysis research on particular areas being hotspots for children becoming incarcerated or falling into the wrong crowds. Marin county is one of those hotspots. This is why Canal Alliance is trying to break this trend of young adults becoming a part of the school to prison pipeline. Based on carceral geography, it is important to recognize that racism is a factor in incarceration. This is why Marin has a higher rate of children being tried as adults due to the higher amount of Latinx people in the community. What I thought was also important to realize was that Gilmore brings up the fact that white Americans are just as equally incarcerated as African American or other Hispanic groups. I think we tended not to focus on this aspect in this class because we focused on racial discrimination that can be seen through mass incarceration. But I thought it was a valid point to bring up that, “In terms of racial demographics, black people are the population most affected by mass incarceration — roughly 33% of those in prison are black…but Latinos still make up 23% of the prison population and white people 30%, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics” (14). I thought this was good information to know, but I also think it is important to know why there are more African American’s becoming incarcerated. This was the overall message of our class. To point out the racial disparities in mass incarceration and to try and address this issue through the school to prison pipeline.

The organization that I decided to pick was Justice Now, located in Oakland. They work with women in prisons and local communities to build a society without prisons. The cause they are addressing is “violence towards women, trans, and gender non-binary people, and to work to end the prison industrial complex as a whole.” I think that women in prison are generally overlooked due to the fact that there are less women incarcerated than men. But a statistic that was brought up in one of our previous readings stated that African American women are having to face an increasing number of incarceration. This is why this issue they are addressing is important. I think also the LGBTQI community is not addressed as often in incarceration and it is important to address all sexualities. In regards to the people that are a part of this organization, the majority of their staff is formerly incarcerated. This brings powerful experiences to the organization and makes sure that those that are impacted by the criminal justice system play a key role in the work of ending it. It is much more powerful for people who have shared an experience and know what it is like first hand than to have lawmakers determine what is best for those that are incarcerated. It is also more beneficial as those that are formerly and currently incarcerated want to better themselves and so coming up with solutions to do this is much more meaningful.

I think that this organization has a great strategy of helping their community. They support peer organization efforts, “in women’s prisons by bringing healthcare providers and community activists inside to work with prisoner peer education.” They also focus on compassionate release, which is when a terminally ill or permanently incapacitated individual is released from prison early. They also focus on training a new generation of activist lawyers and community organizers that are committed to working toward the same goals as Justice Now believes in. I think that this is a good strategy to get more people involved in their organization and something that is long term. I think that by having the majority of the board members as formerly incarcerated people, this puts into perspective the overall purpose and message of this organization. Justice Now is made by people that were affected by incarceration and those same people are now doing something to try and end it which I think is a very powerful message.

For me, this crisis has caused me to feel that although we are asked as a society to social distance, this is not always possible for those in detention centers or in prisons. I recall reading an article from a past CR that spoke of the fear that those in detention centers felt since they were being held there. They spoke of the terrible conditions. A man that was interviewed also spoke of the fact that one man in his holding area probably had the virus as he was showing signs and symptoms for it. This probably made that sick man isolated and made others around him afraid. I can only imagine the fear that is being experienced in places full of people that have nowhere to go except to do their best to stay away from others. I am also reminded of the video, of the boy and his mother, that we watched in class. I am reminded of the visuals of just how crowded these detention centers can actually be. This would be a breeding ground for Covid-19 if someone in the facility were to contract it. The same can be said among prisons. I know for my father, they are limiting the amount of prisoner transportation so as to limit the amount of cross contamination between prisons as possible.

I think for my positionality in my community partner, it has definitely shown me the need to be present in helping them with whatever they need. I know it is difficult though and Canal Alliance is not capable of having volunteers assist at this time. I would have loved to continue tutoring my students though as they were always so bright and cheerful. I can only imagine the stress they are under as communication for public school must be different than that of private schools. For example at Dominican, we are able to use zoom because the majority of us own a laptop or smart device. But at Canal Alliance and public schools, a lot of people do not have the resources that allow them to continue their education. Our current situation has definitely made me more grateful for the technology I have to help me finish my semester and keep in touch with teachers. I also think that one takeaway I have for this class is overall how I feel about mass incarceration. I used to think that incarceration was just a solution to people committing crimes and that “if you do the crime you have to do the time.” But I see now that that is not the case. Rehabilitation is very important for people to actually have a take away from the crime they committed. There are also underlying factors for why a crime is committed, such as poor socioeconomic status, common trends in communities, and having a poor family dynamic. But to the justice system these underlying factors don’t really matter. I think it is important for the future of our justice system to try and increase the amount of rehabilitative services offered in prison and to try and minimize the amount of people that are currently incarcerated.